Trader Joe’s Journal: General Tsao Wings

So if your following me on Instagram, then you may have seen my many posts about my weekly splurges at Trader Joe’s. First off, I must have been living under a rock to NEVER have shopped at Trader Joe’s up until a few months ago. Now, I am beyond thrilled to take trips to my local Trader Joe’s and grab my favorite arrangement of flowers while shopping. Seriously, this place has to be the second closest thing to heaven. While browsing the aisles, I love to pick up a few new sauces and seasoning to try out! On this particular trip, I came across some chicken wings and General Tsao stir fry sauce on sale. Weeks later, on a relaxing Sunday when I had no desire to make a Trader Joe’s trip… I dug around my freezer and that’s how my General Tsao chicken wings were created. Luckily, I had a bag of Trader Joe’s vegetable fried rice and french string beans in the freezer ready to go along with this dish. This is the perfect combination for an easy meal that you can whip up while cleaning up around the house.

Prep Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 1:20 minutes Serving Size: 3-4

Ingredients: 

• 12-15 Chicken wings
• 1 bottle of Trader Joe’s General Tsao Stir Fry Sauce
• 1/2 cup sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• 3 tablespoons butter

Other Ingredients:

• Trader Joe’s French String Beans
• Trader Joe’s Vegetable Fried Rice

Begin by combining the sesame oil, soy sauce, minced ginger, and crushed red pepper in a large mixing bowl and pre heat your over to 375 degrees. Add chicken to the bowl and toss until fully coated with the sesame oil mixture. Transfer the chicken to a deep baking dish, place butter throughout baking dish and cover with foil. Place on the lower rack in the oven and set timer for 20 minutes.

After the first 20 minutes, take chicken out of the oven and drain excess juices. Replace the chicken back in the oven without the foil, turn the temperature up to 425 degrees and set timer for another 20 minutes. Once the timer goes off again, remove chicken from the oven, flip, and drizzle about 1/4 of the Trader Joe’s General Tsao sauce over the chicken and place back in the oven. I basically continue this process until the chicken is a nice brown crunchy texture. Just be sure to save at least half of the General Tsao sauce to put on the chicken once it’s done and throw in the oven on broil for about 3 minutes.

I usually whip up the Trader Joe’s vegetable fried rice with some hot sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce. You can’t forget about the string beans which are super easy and obviously my favorite side dish. Melt some butter in a medium skillet and add some fresh chopped garlic. Toss in the string beans(they can be frozen),add a little garlic salt and fresh ground black pepper and cook for about 5-7 minutes. Yep, it’s that simple! A quick Asian themed dinner for the family without too much of the work, courtesy of Trader Joe’s.

Buffalo Chicken WonTons

A great new friend of mine got a new exciting job in Puerto Rico working with a luxury concierge service, so we decided to throw him a “worldly dinner.” I hope you know those quotations are insinuating air quotations dramatized with my fingers because I had no idea what “worldly” dish to make. Then I thought to myself why not mix your two favorite things: buffalo chicken and asian cuisine. This thought kicked off my idea for buffalo chicken wontons, like HELLO! Amazing, yeah I know! Needless to say, the end result was perfection and they were a total hit at the party. These are great for potluck parties or just something fun and quick to make for the house. Try them out and let me know what you think!

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: 1:00 minutes Serving Size: 10-12

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Buffalo Sauce

• 2/3 cup hot pepper sauce (such as Frank’s RedHot)
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Wontons

• About 1 pound of fresh chicken breast
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 pound of dutch blue cheese/ or crumbs
• 2 cups of vegetable oil
• 1/4 olive oil
• 1/4 of lukewarm water
• 30-35 wonton wraps

So the most important part of this meal is the chicken of course. Begin by seasoning both sides of your chicken breast with garlic salt and black pepper. Heat a skillet on medium with olive oil. Place seasoned chicken breast in hot skillet and cook on both sides for about 10 minutes or until the inside of the chicken is no longer pink. Once your chicken is throughly cooked remove from skillet and place on a cutting board. Next chop of the chicken into super small pieces for the filling. In a small pot on low heat, add the buffalo sauce and chopped chicken together and cover with a lid. Let this cook for at 20-30 minutes.

Now here comes the tricky part… the wontons. This part can get a little complicated especially if you lack patience. But trust me, the end results are completely worthwhile. Make sure you make each wonton, ONE AT A TIME because they will dry out. Also be sure to cover the wontons with a damp wash cloth or paper towel to keep the wonton wraps moist. In a medium sized pot, heat vegetable oil to 450 degrees and begin preparing the wontons.

With a spoon, scoop about half a spoonful of the chopped buffalo chicken and about a 1 teaspoon of blue cheese into the center of the wonton wrap. Next, dip your thumb and index fingers into the luke water water, brush a little water along the edge of the wrapper and pinch both sides of the wonton together. Okay after reading all that and you’re like, “huh?” No worries, I’ll a video below with a bunch of tips to wrapping wontons.

5 different ways to wrap wontons

Fry on each side for about 2-3 minutes or until golden, drain and serve. Trust me, these are a hit at any shin dig and guaranteed to please your party-goers.

Dry Rub Pork Ribs

Last week browsing through Trader Joe’s, I came across a rack of pork ribs on sale for $8. Im like hell yeah! Living in Brooklyn, cookout food is so hard to come by. After searching through a few recipes with a mixture of techniques I learned from my momma bear, I think I found the perfect recipe for dry rub ribs made right in your oven. Grab a nice cold brew and enjoy this meal with a nice fresh salad.  

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: 4: 10 minutes Serving Size: 3-4

Ingredients: 

• 1 rack of pork ribs
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 2 teaspoons cajun seasoning
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon honey

Mix paprika, black pepper, brown sugar, salt, celery seed, cajun seasoning, minced garlic, dry mustard, and cumin in a mixing bowl. Cut the rack of ribs in half and massage the rub evenly into both sides of the ribs. Place the ribs meat side down in foil and wrap tightly. Put the ribs into the fridge and marinate for 6 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and cook for 4 hours. Take the ribs out and drain juices from the foil packets into a saucepan. Cook the sauce on high heat  until it becomes syrupy and add honey. Brush this sauce on top of the ribs and broil in the oven for about 4 minutes. That easy, the best ribs ever without a grill.

 

Dining Diaries: The NOLA Edition

Last weekend, I took a trip to the Crescent City… aka New Orleans. Now…if you travel to NOLA just to blatantly eat at chain restaurants, thats just plain disrespectful. I’ll never forgive you! Besides the obvious attractions, you have to experience the savory creole and cajun New Orleans culinary legacy. So next time you find yourself in New Orleans, consider some of the following spots to try out.

Cafe de Monde

Cafe de Monde is a traditional coffee stand, established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. They are best known for their Beignets, French style powdery squares of goodness. The beignet is a square piece of dough, fried and lavishly covered with powdered sugar. Let me tell you one thing, these things are sent from the heavens. Grab some friends and make this one of your first stops while exploring NOLA.

District

Donuts  | Sliders | Brew

Our next stop was District: Donuts, Sliders, Brew. They offer seven rotating donuts everyday, and also have over 100 options currently available in their catalog. They make everything from scratch, down to their sprinkles and buns with all natural ingredients! Everyone raves about their donuts… which weren’t that amazing, but their sliders were another story. Talk about DELICIOUS! They have a wide selection of sliders depending on market availability and seasons that include Blackened Chicken Caesar, Beef Belly with honeyed goat cheese crema and crispy onion strings, Oyster with micro-chi kara and caper aioli, or even  Shrimp Rangoon with sweet & sour slaw, crispy wonton and 5-spice cream cheese. This is definitely a great spot for lunch and light shopping.

Pictured above: Blackened Chicken Caesar Slider, fresh caesar salad and a vietnamese iced coffee.

Surrey’s Cafe

For our last day in NOLA, we decided we wanted an authentic creole brunch. So we headed over to Surrey’s Cafe and Juice Bar on Magazine Street. First off, this is the best hungover spot because they offer a variety of fresh all natural and organic juices that provide you with the protein and vitamins to any hungover. Especially after a night on Bourbon Street. They also have a savory menu filled with a little bit of something for everyone… even my vegan friends!

Pictured Above: Shrimp and Country Grits with scallions, bacon and tomato based creole sauce.

I hope you enjoyed some of my favorite go to spots in New Orleans, and be on the look out for some Cajun- Creole inspired meals soon. Here are just some extra photos of our trip captured by some of my wonderful friends. Enjoy.

Jerk Chicken Wings

Random story… About two years about I decided to go to SXSW in Austin,Texas. First off lets back track,The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conferences & Festivals offer the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW® is the premier destination for discovery. In laymen’s terms, its freaking awesome. Any who, during the festival they have a plethora of unique food trucks surrounding the festival and of course I had to try my hand at a few.

To my luck, songwriter, singer and chef Kelis had her food truck out there and were giving away free food. Um hello, free food…. I THINK YES. So after having the honor to chat with Kelis for a brief second and indulging in her delicious jerk ribs, I decided to do a little more research on her… as a chef that is. To my knowledge, she is a professional chef trained at Cordon Blu and currently has her own cooking business called Bounty and Full. Awhile ago, she did a segment with Vice Magazine called “Munchies,” and lord and behold she was making her famous Jerk Sauce. So you guys know I had to try it out for myself and it was AMAZBALLS! So without further ado, you can find the recipe below… I tweaked a few things but most of it is the same.

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 2:45 minutes Serving Size: 4-5

Jerk Sauce:

JERK SAUCE:

• 1/2 cup sesame oil
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground allspice
• 4 to 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 to 2 scotch bonnet or habanero peppers, seeded or whole
• 1 bunch scallions, coarsely chopped
• 1 bunch fresh thyme
• Coarse ground black pepper

CHICKEN:

• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Sprinkle smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons salted butter

For the sauce: Combine the oil, molasses, soy sauce, allspice, garlic, Scotch bonnet pepper, scallions, thyme and some black pepper in a blender and blend. Transfer to a saucepan and cook until the sauce changes color,10 to 15 minutes.

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine the garlic, salt and cayenne pepper. Coat the chicken evenly on both sides and reserve any remaining rub. Sprinkle the ribs with paprika. Place the chicken in a  deep baking dish and cover with foil. Bake covered completely for about 1 hour and remove from oven. Drain the excess juices and butter from the pan and add half of the jerk sauce and coat over chicken (Dont worry if its not fully covered, thats at the end). Leave uncovered and place back in the oven for another hour. 

OPTIONAL: After the chicken has cooked in the oven and makes a brown watery sauce, I drain all that excess sauce into a small sauce pan and turn on low heat. After that cooks for about 10 minutes, I add the sauce back to the chicken, place the chicken back into the oven and turn the heat up to about 425 degrees for another 30 minutes. This is to get the chicken nice and brown and crispy.

Now remove the chicken once its brown and a tad bit crispy and add that other half of the original jerk sauce to the chicken and toss. Put your oven on broil and throw the chicken back in the oven for 10 minutes and Voila…. the best jerk chicken from scratch.